CASTLE ROCK — A Douglas County judge on Friday dealt a blow to the potential defense of former Denver Broncos cornerback Perrish Cox, who is charged with two counts of rape.

District Judge Paul King will allow three of four taped interviews with Cox in which he repeatedly said he did not sexually assault the alleged victim and that he never had sexual contact with her.

Two of the recordings are interviews with police. One was a conversation between the alleged victim and Cox that was taped surreptitiously with the help of Lone Tree police.

DNA already has linked Cox to the pregnancy of the accuser. The recordings could make it difficult to argue that Cox had consensual sexual contact with her.

Defense attorney Harvey Steinberg said he did not know how the ruling would affect his case.

“I haven’t made a decision,” he said during a brief recess at a hearing Friday to suppress the evidence.

After the hearing, Cox, who was cut by the Broncos just before the start of this season, said he was ready for the trial to be over.

He said he’s been in contact with other teams and was on several teams’ short lists but wasn’t surprised that a team has not signed him to a contract.

“I know the reason why is because of this case,” Cox said.

Cox faces two felony charges of sexually assaulting a helpless victim unable to appraise her own condition. If convicted, he faces two years to life in prison.

The trial is set to begin Oct. 18 and last six days.

The woman said she passed out at Cox’s apartment in September 2010 and found out later that she was pregnant but didn’t recall ever having sex.

In court documents, she said she must have been drugged because she had only a few drinks that night.

DNA testing concluded Cox was the father.

A fourth interview recorded after his arrest — in which he again said he had not had sex with the woman — was excluded from Cox’s trial because of issues concerning when the prosecution turned it over to the defense.

However, written statements from that recording, previously entered into discovery, will be allowed.

In one of the interviews that was approved for trial, Cox is asked by Lone Tree police whether he was a serial rapist or whether the alleged rape was a one-time event.

“I never raped anybody,” he told police. “I swear I never touched her.”

Steinberg tried to exclude one of the tapes because he said police coerced and trapped Cox in a corner of an interview room and repeatedly called him a liar and yelled at him.

“That’s not how you conduct an interview,” Steinberg said. “That’s not what due process is all about.”

Carlos Illescas had been with The Denver Post since 1997 before leaving in June 2016. He had worked as a reporter covering the suburbs and was a weekend editor. He previously worked for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the Aspen Daily News and graduated from Colorado State University in 1991.